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Abstract

Objective: Health care personnel need to be fully aware of public attitude towards Life Sustaining Treatments (LST), to know how to deal with individuals and family members from diverse cultural groups in this topic. This study was conducted to evaluate chronic patient’s family member’s attitude towards life sustaining treatment in South East Iran.Method: Ethnicity and Attitudes toward Advance Care Directives Questionnaire was used to examine the attitude of 147 chronic patient’s family members toward LSTs in South East Iran. Results: participants had a moderately positive attitude towards general use of LSTs (mean: 3.69 ± 0.54 out of 5). Findings indicated that married persons had a more personal desire for LSTs compared to single individuals. Persons with higher levels of education showed less positive attitude towards LSTs compared to those with lower levels of education.Significance of Results: A globally and suitable strategy about how to withdraw and withhold LST may not be accepted by the general public and may not be appropriately established since these issues well understood by each person through public education.